Catheter assemblies, including balloon catheter assemblies which have an expandable balloon member located at the distal end of the balloon catheter, are employed in a variety of medical procedures including as dilatation devices for compressing atherosclerotic plaque which results in a narrowing of the arterial lining, and for delivery and expansion of prosthetic devices such as stents, to a lesion site, i.e. vessel obstruction, within a body vessel.
One medical procedure where balloon catheters are employed is percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), or plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA), which is a non-invasive, non-surgical means of treating peripheral and coronary arteries. This technique consists of inserting an uninflated balloon catheter into the affected artery. Dilation of the diseased segment of artery is accomplished by inflating the balloon which pushes the atherosclerotic lesion outward, thereby enlarging the arterial diameter.
In the most widely used form of angioplasty, a balloon catheter is guided through the vascular system until the balloon, which is carried at the distal end of a catheter shaft is positioned across the stenosis or lesion, i.e., vessel obstruction. The balloon is then inflated to apply pressure to the obstruction whereby the vessel is opened for improved flow.
In some embodiments, the catheter balloon may be utilized to expand and/or implant an expandable medical device such as a stent. When the balloon is expanded, the medical device or stent, which is situated on the balloon, is also expanded and released to aid in support and/or repair of the vessel wall.
Due to the very small size of the vessels and the tortuous path through which such devices are inserted and/or implanted, desirable characteristics for such assemblies include flexibility and maneuverability (steerability), for ease of advancement through the body vessel, as well as thin walls, high strength and durability while maintaining a low profile. It is also desirable to control dimensional changes in medical balloons upon inflation to various pressures including both radial and longitudinal expansion characteristics. Thus, the trend has been to downscale device sizes without compromising other device properties.
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Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.